Michael Zullo recalls being part of three-pronged Aussie Dutch move with Tommy Oar, Adam Sarota
How do you measure success in football? How do you define a life well lived? These are questions that occupy Sydney FC star Michael Zullo, as much as thoughts of tactics and gameplans for a grand final.
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How do you measure success in football? How do you define a life well lived? These are questions that occupy Michael Zullo, as much as thoughts of tactics and gameplans for a grand final.
Playing in Sunday’s season finale adds to the achievements that have come relatively late to Zullo, nine years after he was sold as part of a youthful package deal to Dutch side Utrecht along with Brisbane teammates Adam Sarota and Tommy Oar.
Sarota had already been to play in Europe as a teenager, and Oar was predictably being compared to Harry Kewell as a youthful left winger. But almost a decade later it’s Zullo who has trophies to his name, and might have another by Sunday night.
For the now-31-year-old, though, for all that he is desperate to win the grand final, all that glitters is not just silverware.
Sarota hasn’t played since a horrible leg break two years ago, and Oar’s career has been blighted by a series of injuries. But Zullo can tell you many ways in which all three of them are winners.
“We’re three guys who are maybe not typical footballers in that we all had things we wanted to get out of life, away from the field,” he said.
“I do think about how your career is a series of sliding doors, how the smallest decision can lead to completely different outcomes. I often wonder what would have happened if we’d gone our separate ways.
“But in saying that, how we moved to Holland together is a massive part of my life, we have a lot of shared memories that we still banter about.
“Adam will be a member of my bridal party in July. I came out of that time in Holland with two friends I will have for the rest of my life.”
Zullo can see now how the triple transfer wasn’t necessarily engineered to further all three of their careers.
“In the grand scheme of things I can see now there was probably more benefit to people outside the game, more so than us,” he said.
“I don’t have regrets exactly. But the Dutch system is well set up to produce some of the best talent in the world. Being three Australians playing all at once at a Dutch club, at the expense of young Dutch talent … that was never going to happen. But when you’re young and naive, you just go and do your thing.”
In fairness, all three did make it to some degree, though Zullo’s progression was hampered by a series of undiagnosed injuries that also stymied what should have been a weightier national team career than 11 Socceroos caps.
But again, Zullo has the perspective now to see it all in terms of what did happen and what
was achieved, not what might have been.
“Adam is one of the most gifted players I’ve ever played with, and I mean that with all seriousness,” he said.
“He was just a freak, but then he had a massive injury that ended his career.
“He then looked at life after football, made the transition into business and is successful there.
“After Holland Tommy played in places like England, Cyprus, as well as Australia. If you ask him, he had some great experiences living in countries he wanted to see, he played in the EPL, made his debut at Manchester United.
“We’re all happy with where we’ve ended up. That’s something that’s overlooked sometimes, people see footballers as kind of chess pieces on a board, but there’s a personal element as well.
“The older I get the more I realise that it’s not always the best players who go on to be most successful, so many things need to fall into place.
“But I’ve been superlucky to be at Sydney the last few years. I have trust in my body now that I didn’t have say four years ago.”
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